Solace in Silence

What a wonderful thing, to lie in the grass and look at the sky, feeling nestled and nurtured in the lap of Mother Earth. It’s a simple pleasure, but one that Sister Nancy Fiero does not normally have time for in her jampacked life as a concert pianist, piano teacher, writer, lecturer and member of the St. Joseph of Carondelet Order.

Nor does Sister Nancy usually have time to take midday naps. In today’s hyperpaced society, that blissful pastime is seen as a luxury, a sign of weakness or maybe a waste of time. You could be doing deals on your cell phone instead!

But here at the Holy Spirit Retreat Center, a rustic spiritual oasis just minutes from bustling Ventura Boulevard in Encino, Sister Nancy takes naps. She takes quiet strolls through the center’s 10 acres, a wooded wonderland of duck ponds and more than 900 oak, elm, citrus, olive and eucalyptus trees. She sketches, writes in her journal and reads inspirational books.

Most important, Sister Nancy communes with her Creator, stilling herself to know God. She is on retreat--a time of solitude, silence and spiritual replenishment that is in such demand that Holy Spirit and other centers are booking reservations into 2001 and beyond.

“People come here saying they feel an emptiness, a void; they say they’re stressed and on overload,” said Sister Rochelle Mitchell, the center’s programming director. “They are looking for peace, for meaning. Some people are truly seeking God.”

Spanning the Faith Spectrum

While seekers of every faith have always sought solitude to deepen their awareness of the infinite, retreats as an organized lay movement began among Roman Catholics in the United States in 1928, said Anne Luther, director of Retreats International in Notre Dame, Ind.

Today, Luther said, she is aware of as many as 700 retreat centers in the United States and Canada. Although they are predominantly Christian, retreats span the faith spectrum as growing ecumenism puts Protestants, Jews or Buddhists together in the same center--sometimes at the same time.

The Internet hums with more than 29,000 hits for the phrase “spiritual retreat center.” There are Web sites offering retreats to the spiritual power vortexes of Sedona, Ariz., guided by the Archangel Michael. There are retreats with Sioux Indians, Zen priests, Tibetan lamas. For those who cannot manage to get away, there are virtual retreats offered by “cybermonks” who post weekly meditations, prayers, poetry and inspirational thoughts for the day:

“When there is not separation between ourselves and others, naturally we do good. Our basic nature is to do good,” was one quote by Charlotte Joko Beck posted this week.

But most of the nation’s retreat centers are still associated with the pioneering Catholics. Some of the centers, Luther said, are monasteries or nunneries that have been opened to lay retreats amid the dwindling number of monks, priests and nuns. In Southern California, a popular retreat center is St. Andrew’s Abbey, a Benedictine monastery on the edge of the Mojave Desert in Valyermo. The abbey offers meals and lodging, prayer, chanting and a Grand Silence that begins nightly at 8:30 and lasts through breakfast the next day.

The greater Los Angeles area has dozens of centers, including the Mary and Joseph Retreat Center in Rancho Palos Verdes, the Serra Retreat Center in Malibu and the Center for Spiritual Development in Orange.

Just minutes from downtown Los Angeles is the Immaculate Heart Retreat Center near Griffith Park--an eight-acre expanse of flora and fauna, fountains and towering living quarters built in the style of an Italian Renaissance castle. Donated to the sisters in 1971 by Sir Daniel Donohue, a Catholic philanthropist, the center features chandeliers, brocaded walls, circular stairways, arched doorways and panoramic views of Glendale on one side and the high-rises of downtown Los Angeles on the other.

A Spirit of Service

The opulent quarters stir visions of the wealthy car dealer who built the estate in 1927, but the soft-spoken, hospitable sisters of Immaculate Heart have infused the setting with a spirit of service.

“We’re trying to help people nourish their spiritual and physical needs,” said Sister Mary Rita, superior of the Immaculate Heart Order in the Los Angeles region. “In the midst of continual hurry and noise, the human spirit cries out for the stillness and quiet peace found in solitude.”

Immaculate Heart offers only day retreats for the public, since it lacks overnight facilities. St. Andrew’s and Holy Spirit, by contrast, offer programs that can last for a few hours to weeks at a time for both individuals and groups. Programs coming up at Holy Spirit include explorations of spiritual healing, dream interpretation, the affinity between Buddhism and Christian contemplative traditions and personal faith journeys as tools for spiritual and psychological growth.

For overnight guests, most of the centers ask for suggested donations to cover the costs of lodging and three meals--$69 a night at Holy Spirit, for instance, and $55 to $110 at St. Andrew’s.

The various programs, Luther and others say, reflect the nation’s growing diversity of spiritual traditions and social challenges.

But all retreats always have had a common denominator: the longing to leave the busy routine of daily life and enter into a sacred space of solitude, prayer and contemplation. The process of uncluttering the mind can help people reconnect with what they truly want--not the addictions to shopping, drugs or food that many use as substitutes, Luther said.

“The Old Testament says, ‘Be still and know that I am God,’ ” Sister Rochelle said. “Stillness and silence are foundations of spirituality.”

Those who visit Holy Spirit say that the center is infused with a special grace born of the hospitable service of the Sisters of Social Service. The sisters began Los Angeles’ first retreat center for women in the 1940s, then moved it to Encino in 1969. They strive to follow the spirit of the Rule of St. Benedict, Sister Rochelle said, characterized by three pursuits: seeking God, pursuing peace and offering hospitality.

Sister Nancy says she loves the center’s “silent community,” the nod or smile to one another that feels far more meaningful than a glazed-eye greeting from a distracted colleague at work. She likes the wholesome meals of fruit, vegetables and protein that “don’t pull on my addictions.”

Here, she can let her creativity surge forth--on a recent afternoon, she sat in the shade of a giant elm and sketched a vision of a sunlit lake. She is reading interviews with opera singers to help deepen her musical understanding and a tome on feminist spirituality to strengthen her ministry of empowering women of faith.

The quiet time--sitting in contemplative prayer, strolling along the wooded paths--allows her unresolved issues to rise up and face her. How does she still sell herself short, a legacy of growing up in the shadow of a smart and talented sibling? How can she re-craft her life so she isn’t always so tired?

After even a few days, Sister Nancy says, she begins to feel rested, replenished and renewed.

“I walk away from here feeling someone really loves you,” Sister Nancy said. “I feel a new energy come in--lighter, alive.”